Banks have come to count on foreign financing to an unprecedented extent, reaching a level close to seven billion euros in late September, while foreign assets barely reached one billion euros, half of that seen in June.
Since the beginning of the year, the banking system''s foreign exposure has almost doubled, after a similar evolution was seen in 2004, as well.
According to central bank data, half the sum of about 6.8 billion euros registered by the banking system, accounted for medium and long-term financing lines. These still represent the only solution through which banks can secure medium and long-term sources for the refinancing of loans with long maturities granted to customers, especially in the case of mortgage financing.
As a matter of fact, bankers are complaining that given the NBR''s blocking of foreign currency-denominated loans, the foreign currency risk is likely to be replaced by a risk linked to a possible increase in medium and long-term RON loans, since banks do not have stable re-financing sources in the same currency.
Some banks, such as Alpha Bank, Piraeus Bank, Volksbank and Sanpaolo IMI Bank have recently resorted to capital increases so as to be able to further grant foreign currency loans and still remain within the ceiling imposed by the NBR, namely three times the value of the bank''s own funds. Larger banks have not resorted to the same strategy, given that it could lead to a reduction of their capital profitability, which might anger shareholders.
Steven van Groningen, the Raiffeisen Bank chairman, recently stated that the central bank should not be content to see a slowdown of lending in foreign currency in its data, because many such cases of financing are being directly released from abroad.
Thus, one of the central bank''s biggest concerns is still the fact that commercial bankers will become increasingly successful at avoiding the barrier set for foreign currency lending, maintaining the powerful influence of the euro on the market. At any rate, through the imposed restriction, the NBR can still gain several months of limited foreign currency financing, which would allow for a relative balance between this and RON lending.
At the same time, the increased foreign exposure of the banking system has also been fuelled by the higher sums placed in short-term deposits, opened by foreign banks, as well as by other non-resident investors, lured by the high interest rates on the Romanian market. razvan.voican@zf.ro
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